Of Course He Bought Books He Hasn’t Read!
After yesterday’s NY Times story about the New York Public Library‘s official embrace of Stephen Schwarzman, the Wall Street tycoon who’s donating $100 million to the institution and getting the main building renamed in his honor—carved on each side of the major entrances, in tasteful lettering less than 12 inches high—we were reminded of Michael Gross, who wrote about Schwarzman in his role as the unauthorized historian of 740 Park Avenue (“the world’s richest apartment building,” as the book’s subtitle puts it). Well, “wrote about” is a bit of an understatement; Gross has publicly challenged Schwarzman’s philanthropy, in the book and in subsequent articles, for not being as generous as it could be (PDF file). This time around, he has a bit of snark to share: “I wasn’t entirely surprised to learn that he’d filled the bookshelves in his trophy apartment with books by the yard, bought at the Strand Bookstore,” Gross writes on his blog. “But hey, better books he hasn’t read than no books at all!”
(In Schwarzman’s defense, not that he needs it from the likes of me, I haven’t read most of the books on my bookshelves, or stacked on the floor all over my foyer, either. That’s why they’re there: for me to get around to in my copious free time. And it’s not like we know whether he went with the subject-specific assortment or the antique leather bindings.)
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